Wedding Blog

I decided what I wanted my bridesmaids to wear approximately three years ago. Yes, you read that correctly, THREE YEARS AGO. Long, long long, before we were engaged. One of my adorable bridesmaids, BM N and I share a wonderful obsession—our mutual admiration of all things J.Crew. About two years ago we fell upon the Cotton Cady Lindsey dress.

[Photo Source: J.Crew.com]

We wanted it, we needed it, and we had nothing to wear it to.

The dress is classic, and beautiful. Everything a bridesmaid’s dress is usually not. So, I decided right then and there that I would not torture my maids in a frilly dress—no tulle for me! They would wear the Lindsey dress in all its beautiful glory. I have 8 girls in my party of all shapes, heights, and sizes. One of my girls is actually a junior bridesmaid, and at 13, it will even be appropriate for her! All I had to do was pray they were still in production if and when I ever got engaged. Lucky for me, Mr. Cloud didn’t wait too long, and as soon as the girls were asked and agreed to be in the wedding, I was on a mission to order the dresses.

And now I would like to offer a few hints for any other brides looking to order the dresses for their girls from the store we all know and love…

• Sign up for their email list, they often send out 20% off coupons, which are even usable for their wedding collection.
• Order in store if possible, from the red phone! Anything ordered there will have free shipping, and they will either ship them all to one address, or each separate.
• The stores often run extra promotions for signing up for the J.Crew card (the largest I have heard of was 30%!). The discount applies also to anything ordered the same day on the red phone.
• I had been told in other stores, and heard online, that you can have the dresses delivered to the store, and do a “try-on” before buying. Unfortunately this is not true. You must buy before any delivery, although they will ship them to the store if for whatever reason that is easier for you.
• If they don’t fit, you can bring them back to the store and do an “exchange”. They will ship it back for no charge, and also ship you the replacement with no shipping charges!
• The measurements listed for dresses on the website are pretty spot on. We were worried about this, so my girls ordered a size up from their regular dress size. We are now taking advantage of the above tip, and swapping them all for smaller sizes.
• I don’t know how accurate this is, but according to the helpful sales gal at my store, their wedding collection is made the same way other companies make bridesmaid dresses, meaning they are meant to be altered and have extra fabric at the seems. We haven’t gotten that far with ours yet, but I will keep you updated.

My girls will be wearing this beautiful dress in black, with the sash tied in a bow in the back, as modeled by my gorgeous baby cousin, BM C (not so baby anymore, she’s 13). This is pre-alteration, which she will definitely need since she is tiny, but it still looks super cute!

Did you always have a specific bridesmaid dress in mind, even before you were engaged? What does it look like?